Gifted Hands

It was probably about five years ago when I came across an article in the magazine Vibrant Life that so deeply impacted me, I asked the doctor’s office I was in if I could keep it. The article was about renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

When Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution in Baltimore, Maryland, shows up to work it really is brain surgery. The article detailed some of his strategies for maintaining a strong commitment to his family, while being at the top of one of the most demanding professions in the world.

After years of sharing this article with other busy friends and colleagues, I was excited to discover that a movie was made about Dr. Carson’s incredible life story. The movie is called Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, and stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Dr. Carson.

With this post I want to officially recommend this movie and leave you with a couple of Dr. Carson’s philosophies as shared in the Vibrant Life article. I have adopted these strategies in balancing my own family and professional commitments.

“I write my family into my schedule – because if I don’t, all those other things will come in and invade that time…It will just say ‘reserved’. That way someone [can’t say], ‘Here’s some time, it’s just your family time, you can do it here.’ To them family’s not important. To me it is.”

“My philosophy is that I’m never going to get finished at the hospital. There’s always another scan to review, another problem, some emergency. That never stops. I’d just rather be done at 7:00 or 7:30, go home, and be able to see the kids and spend some time with them than not to be done at 11:30 or 12:00, go home, and find they’re already asleep. What difference does it make if I’m not done with it at 7:30 versus 11:30? I’m not going to be done with it either way,” he says. “By the same token, I try to make sure that the weekend time is spent with the family.”